A Wraith's Wraith
by Todd's Pet
Summary: A little ditty that Steve wraith gave to me in a dream, he does that a lot these days! combined with a conversation I had with a GW forum friend about hearing and seeing wraith that no one else can see or hear!


A Wraith's Wraith

Ellie misses Steve. But there's no one here she can talk to about it. In fact she's astounded that they even allow her to go on off-world missions – she being a woman who had once loved a wraith.

The team all studiously avoid the topic, of course, and that only makes it worse for Ellie. There are days when she misses him so desperately that she doesn't know if she really wants to go on living without him. Days like today.

The noise and hustle of the market feel like a thousand needles in Ellie's head. She'd hoped the painkillers she took this morning would've at least dulled the headache she woke up with, but if anything it's even worse now and isn't being helped by her feeling of futility at being here.

The people of this planet live simply and when they excavated three working ZPMs from the fields they knew nothing of what they could do – they only know that they are valuable to others they trade with and word of them eventually reached Atlantis. The team are here in the hopes of being able to obtain a trade for one of them.

-oOo-

Teyla emerges at last from her talks with the elders and leads them around the village to the back of the meeting hall, where she points to a jumble of mechanical devices that would look more at home in a torture chamber; axes and hammers, spears and spikes, all held back by triggers roped to a pathway that winds it's way through them all.

"They call this an obstacle course," Teyla tells them. Ronon raises his eyebrows as he looks over the rusted mechanisms and guesses that it's not been attempted in a very long time. "They will give us one of the ZPMs if one of us successfully completes the course."

They all look at Ronon, who is still staring at the obstacle course and clearly calculating his chances of managing to get through it alive, and equally clearly deciding the odds against it are too high.

Ellie is starting to feel claustrophobic as she looks around at the growing crowd of villagers gathering around the contraption in anticipation of a spectacle to bring excitement to their dull day.

That's when she sees Steve, standing at the far end of the course, smiling at her.

"Can you see…? Does anyone else…?" she starts to ask the others if they can see him, but it's clear from their lack of reaction that they don't – Ronon at the very least would be aiming his gun at Steve by now if he could see him!

Ellie stares at Steve. Is this a ghost? No, she's certain she would know if he had been killed – she would sense it, feel something. Is it a fetch then, or some kind of telepathic projection… but why?

"You can do it," Steve says clearly, winking at her. She looks around to check if anyone reacts in a way that suggests they can hear him. They don't. "You were always up for a challenge, Ellie. I'll talk you though it. Trust me."

Steve she trusts, but this is not Steve – no one else can see him – so can she trust this… whatever it is?

-oOo-

Ellie stands at the start of the obstacle course, her heart beating so wildly she's convinced it will burst through her chest at any minute.

"Be calm," Steve tells her, "I will not allow you to be harmed."

She remembers that exact same phrase… he told her that on the first day she ever set foot on a wraith hive and he sensed her fear. She decides there and then that, wherever this vision is coming from, it is Steve and she will trust him.

"Take a single step forward," Steve tells her.

The second she does the course swings into its macabre motion. Her eyes widen with fear again when she sees it.

"Stop!" Steve says, and she stops. The huge axe swings in front of her, so close she can feel the wind of its movement on her face.

"Two paces forward, now!" Steve says, then, "Stop!"

She steps forward two paces and feels the movement of the axe just behind her.

"When I say go, crouch down to your knees, roll forward two rotations, jump up, tucking your feet to your own hip height, then roll forward again one rotation…" Ellie takes a deep breath. "Go!"

To the on-looking team, Ellie appears to defy gravity as she rolls and jumps through massive swinging hammers set at different heights, finally coming to a swaying halt a mere hair's breadth from the last one that swings so close behind her it whips her jacket to the side.

"Stop! Stay right there until I tell you to move!"

She stares at him, her heart beating furiously. She cannot move forward and she cannot go backward; she is completely dependent on Steve. He smiles as soon as the thought forms in her head. You always were an egotistical control freak, she thinks, and his smile broadens into a grin.

"Down on your stomach and crawl your own body length," Steve orders and Ellie instantly does as he says. She lifts her head just a fraction to reassure herself that he's still there, but dips her head straight back again when she hears him bark "Head down, Ellie!" and feels the spear catch her hair as it whizzes past her head.

"Stand up."

Ellie is starting to tire and question whether she can do this and as she hesitates just a fraction of a second, she sees Steve reach toward her, fear on his face, shouting, "Now, Ellie!"

She leaps to her feet just in time to avoid the spikes that shoot up through the floor she'd just been lying on – but not quite quick enough to avoid being nicked in the thigh with the tip of one.

She puts her hand to her thigh to staunch the blood, but Steve tells her, "No time for that now, Ellie. Almost there… one step at a time when I say… step now… and again… another step… now run! Now! Just run to me!"

Steve holds his arms out and without even thinking she runs as fast as she can towards Steve…

Catapults are hurling rocks at her from all directions but she's just running as if all the hounds of hell are after her and, incredibly, every one of them misses her. She runs out past the end of the obstacle course and keeps on running – straight into the immovable obstacle of Ronon!

"Steve!" she says, her voice heavy with relief, but looking up she sees Ronon where she expected to see Steve.

She looks around at the team who are all looking at her with various mixtures of concern and admiration. Steve is nowhere to be seen.

-oOo-

"They were so impressed they gave us all three ZPMs!" McKay tells Major Sheppard as if he were soley responsible for their procurement.

Sheppard looks at the four of them with deep suspicion – which deepens even further when Teyla adds, "Ellie was the one responsible. She successfully undertook a challenge at which no one has been able to succeed for centuries."

Sheppard looks to Ronon for confirmation that they're pulling his leg.

"Don't look at me," Ronon shrugs, "I wouldn't even have attempted it, but she just sailed through it!"

Sheppard turns his glare at Ellie, waiting for a lengthy explanation.

Just before she walks away, leaving them to their confusion, Ellie simply says with an enigmatic smile, "I had a little help."

-oOo-

In spite of the lift it gave her to tease the team like that, Ellie heads back to her room with a heavy heart. Just as she's wondering if she'll ever see Steve again, he's suddenly there as she rounds a corner.

This time he's leaning casually against the corridor wall, smiling that smile that always made her stomach do somersaults.

"I'll be here whenever you need me, Ellie. Always."

She stands and watches as he fades away, like the ancient Celtic wraith myths she was reared on, until he melts to nothing in the walls of Atlantis.

But the warmth of his smile doesn't fade with his fetch and as she turns to walk to her room she carries it with her, precious and close to her heart. Always.

The End


End file.
